Bondshold Ltd has acquired Darwins Holdings Ltd of Sheffield from Sterling Fluid Systems UK Group Ltd.
Darwins is an established steel foundry and a competitor of Bonds. Recently it came under the ultimate ownership of Flowserve Inc of the USA - one of the world’s largest manufacturers of pumps and a customer of Bonds - as part of Flowserve’s acquisition of Sterling SIHI.
Through acquisition and investment, including £4m to establish a new foundry site in Crook, County Durham, Bonds has grown substantially in recent years and Darwins will be an important addition to Bonds’ foundry group.
Paul Duncan, chairman of Bondshold, said: “We are pleased to welcome Darwins to the Bonds’ group of steel foundries. With the fall in the price of oil having temporarily reduced the worldwide demand for flow castings, it is opportune for Bonds to gain access to new parts of the market through Darwins.
“Darwins will provide important capacity to the group when the market up-turn arrives”.
Located in the northeast of England, Bonds’ foundries specialises in high integrity castings up to 12,000kg for the power generation, oil/gas, marine/offshore and construction sectors, primarily for export. Darwins has the capability of producing steel castings up 3,000kg.